Curtain Falls

The final class of the week had just ended yesterday afternoon, marking the end of the first semester of my second year here in this university. For the first time ever, I had a bit of melancholy at the thought of wrapping up this chapter of my student life. Perhaps it is because we, the second year petroleum engineering students managed to get to know each other better this year than we did last year, so the thought of not being able to see those familiar faces again until the next semester begins does not really please me. I must say that the sessions we had during our Business Communication class, especially the part where we had to do presentations was particularly helpful in building the close rapport between us, since it was through those sessions that we managed to know more about other persons. I may not have managed to talk to each and every people in the class until now, but the idea of being in the same class with all of them was comforting enough. I will try to speak more and be a bit friendlier when we have a chance to meet again next time, I promise.

To say that I can now embrace freedom since the class had already ended is not quite right nevertheless. I still have to sit for finals exams which will start in about one and a half week’s time, plus another final assignment is not quite done yet. However between now and exams period, I shall take a brief moment to relax and try to regain my composure. It had been a hectic 12-week of class, with workloads amount so incredible that at one point I could barely sleep at night for fear that I may not be able to get to the finish line. Alhamdulillah, at the end of the day I still managed to make it here. All in all, I should say that this semester has been a revelation for me, as it helps to define to a huge extent this career path that I am taking. If last year I was still unsure whether this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, at this point of time those doubts are all but diminished, thanks to lessons I learnt both from and outside the class. I particularly enjoyed Reservoir Engineering and Business Communication classes, since both of these improved my vision of what petroleum engineering is, and also because they set the stage for a closer relationship between us through group and individual presentations, group discussions, etc. Contrastingly, Chemical Engineering Design is a total disaster, period. I am just glad that I did not choose to become a chemical engineer in the first place. As for my two General Education courses, both had been great in diverting my attention from the core subjects, though at times they managed to become distractions as well. I particularly enjoyed my Chinese lessons especially during the second half of the semester, presumably because that was when I started to grab some sense on that new language.

This might sound a bit early, but actually I am already looking forward for next semester. I miss maths badly, and thank God I will have a chance to learn maths again in the next semester. On another note, I am still contemplating on whether to proceed with my two other General Education courses that I have enrolled in, or to swap it with a professional elective subject. The idea of learning Microeconomics for elective sounds interesting, but continuing with General Education given Concept of Physical Fitness and World Religions as my current choice do not sound too bad either. Oh, did I say that I did also think of doing History of Mathematics? History and maths are both my favourite subjects, and what better deal can you get than a combination of the two? I shall try to make my decision within this few days before I start to get swarmed by the tension of finals exams.

We will have an end-of-session lunch cum gathering at one of the restaurants at Kingsford here today. The time arrangement does not quite do justice to me since it is close to the Friday prayer, so I might not be able to stay long. It is still a good way to bid farewell to everyone nevertheless, though most of us will still be able to meet one another when the next session comes.